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Ferrari Magazine is the online inevitable place for Ferrari owners and lovers. Read the last news, articles and interviews about Ferrari’s World.Fri, 01 Aug 2014 10:23:23 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2I was therehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/rGTkkDvSIxM/
http://magazine.ferrari.com/blog/2014/08/i-was-there/#commentsFri, 01 Aug 2014 06:53:40 +0000Nick Masonhttp://magazine.ferrari.com/?p=6757Nick Mason, celebrated drummer with Pink Floyd, our Contributing Editor and a noted Ferrari collector, looks back to the time when the fabled rock band provided a soundtrack to the late 1960s West Coast counter culture

]]>Ever since The Beatles led the so-called British invasion in 1964, there has been talk of UK musicians “conquering” the US. My first trip to the States was rather less triumphant when, in the mid-1960s, I arrived as a wide-eyed architectural student on a summer break. The automotive powerhouse that was Detroit was still in full swing, and there were chrome-laden land yachts as far as the eye could see.

However, my initial motoring experience was limited to a rather engaging deal, operated by the Greyhound Lines bus company where, in exchange for $99, I was entitled to unlimited travel across the entire country for three months. Delighted with this arrangement, I embarked on a coast-to-coast trip, taking just three days to travel from Manhattan to the fabled West Coast. It was, without doubt, educational (physically and socially) though not dissimilar, I imagine, to the travel arrangements of Captain Bligh’s Bounty
when modified by his mutineers.

Close friendships were made and, by arrival in San Francisco, the physical experience of sleeping in a coach seat with no stops longer than 20 minutes, suggested that budget airlines aren’t that bad after all and that, on the American freeway, nothing beats travelling in your own vehicle.

With this knowledge, I joined up with a fellow student and we invested a modest sum in a 1953 Cadillac, an Eldorado, I think. So equipped, we drove from Lexington, Kentucky to Acapulco in Mexico. Later I realised that this was considerably more demanding than competing in the Carrera Panamericana road race. We didn’t speak Spanish, and we certainly didn’t have an interpreter, engineering assistance or indeed a decent map.

Rather unexpectedly, just a year later I found myself disembarking from a Boeing 707 at LA airport with a new occupation in my passport, optimistically describing me as a “musician”. I have to say that, even now, more than 40 years later, I still get that same buzz of anticipation and pleasure arriving at what has always seemed to be the real hub of the music business.

Even if the UK has produced most of the best music (The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Who et al –discuss), the M4 motorway from Heathrow into London isn’t loaded with the same sun-kissed sense of possibility as the palm-lined boulevards of LA, a staple of every rock documentary and promo video ever since the medium was invented.

“Los Angeles and San Francisco were social hotspots when touring, with so much of the music
industry based there”

Los Angeles and San Francisco were social hotspots when touring, with so much of the music industry based there. As well as the musicians, there were people like Sam Jonas Cutler. I had originally met Sam in Notting Hill, where he had, I think, been a special needs teacher. This qualified him perfectly to become a rock show organiser.

After organising the Stones’ fabled concert in Hyde Park, he had joined their crew and ended up in California, exchanging the corduroy jacket for a buckskin fringed number and Viva Zapata moustache to achieve the full Buffalo Bill look mandatory for West Coast musicians at the time. It was a look could be achieved by shopping at Nudie’s. Nudie Cohn made the clothes for all the big country and western singers, and had a white Pontiac Bonneville convertible, with silver-dollarstudded dashboard and bodywork, Colt 45 pistol grip door handles and gearshift, and an enormous cattle horn hood ornament to gore any unfortunate pedestrian who crossed his path.

Anyway, after the Altamont debacle (a free festival headlined by the Stones, when Meredith Hunter was murdered by Hells Angels), Sam managed to bounce back and became part of the Grateful Dead team, ending up on the band’s management staff. Oh, and mentioning qualifications, one of our better road crew had come from a background as a psychiatric nurse. The hotels were a treat. The Continental Hyatt House on Sunset Strip, more often known as “the Riot House”, was particularly notorious. Their policy was not to take complaints from residents on the basis that they catered for the music business. It was unusual not to have at least three other bands checked in at one of these hotels. On one early tour we met up with Frank Zappa and a band he was producing at the time called the GTO’s.

This was not a reference to Gran Turismo Omologato, but an all girl band: GTO in this instance standing for ‘Girls Together Often’. I know the days of e pty freeways, easy parking and smog-free skies are now a distant dream, but the Whisky A Go Go’s still there, along with the Hollywood Bowl. (Pink Floyd played in the former in late October 1967, and debuted The Dark Side Of The Moon in its entirety at the Bowl in September 1972, six months before the album’s release.)

Travel was initially limited to one rental car for band (four persons) and management (one person), along with a large estate car with U-Haul trailer for the equipment and road crew (two persons). These were to be commandeered upon arrival at an airport, with all tour equipment flown as extra luggage. At the time there was a standard charge of $10 for every extra piece of baggage. All our equipment could be freighted from East Coast to West for less than $1,000, but incurred a pretty irritated crowd of passengers behind us in the check-in, and a less than thrilled airline representative at the desk.

I distinctly remember our first trip from LA to San Francisco, up the Pacific Coast Highway. It not only had stunning views (and still does, despite the scenery’s worrying habit of regularly dislodging itself on to the road below), but thanks to California’s ever-changing local FM radio, our quest had a fantastically diverse soundtrack.

We stopped at Nepenthe, the renowned hippy restaurant in Big Sur, where every proper rock band had stopped before us. Astonishingly, it’s still there, now run by the children and grandchildren of the people who gave us dinner that night. I know this because we called in on our way back to LA from Pebble Beach last year. It doesn’t seem quite so cool now, with lots of hippy jewellery, crystals and tie-dyed T-shirts for the tourists, but then I suppose my fashion tastes have changed a fair bit as well.

Another band we spent time with was Alice Cooper. This comprised not only Alice and his band mates, but also a glass tank with a large snake in residence, which was part of the stage show. I’m not sure how well the chambermaids felt about this, but probably better than the ones at the Edgewater Inn in Seattle. The story is that Led Zeppelin took advantage of the opportunity to fish out of the hotel window. Having caught a small shark they carefully installed it in the bed, and covered it with a sheet. I think they were on the “Not Welcome” list for some time.

Backstage was fun. In San Francisco we were support act to Big Brother and the Holding Company, Janis Joplin’s original Band. We met Janis in the band room and Roger Waters politely offered her a swig from the bottle of Southern Comfort he happened to be carrying. She drank the lot in one hit…Coincidental with an upturn in our musical fortunes, our American driving opportunities improved. Among other things, it enabled us to be based in LA, and luxury of luxuries, for each of us to have individual rental cars. In a fog of awful American rubbish, the ones that stand out are classics like the Mustang and, later, the Chevrolet Camaro Z28. This was living the dream.

Truly appalling gas mileage, coupled with the mind-jarring clatter of crude suspension over freeway expansion joints and the potholes of Sunset Strip certainly supplied authenticity. I mean, this was the road to Malibu… And, when you got to wherever it was you were going, there would be valet parking to ensure you never even had to select reverse gear and engineer a parking manoeuvre that would have been easier in a London bus. (Oddly, the ultimate rental at the time was from Europe, in the shape of a Mercedes 450SL, but it just didn’t have that rumbling American exhaust note.)

It was also important not to get carried away with these cars, and start importing them back home. Just as that bottle of Retsina tasted wonderful on a romantic Greek island, but had a whiff of disinfectant back in north London, so that groovy 1970s muscle car became a bit of an embarrassment on Camden High Street. Better by far to do a road trip with a Winnebago and bring that back for use in the paddock at Silverstone.

Some of my fondest memories of US motoring involve the wonderful networking available from fellow enthusiasts. My first contact in the early 1970s was with a wonderful Aston Martin enthusiast called Charlie Turner, based in Atlanta, Georgia I think, who had a sister car to mine. I still remember that first tentative phone call when he asked how he would recognise me. I described my really rather unsuitable outfit, which at the time involved snakeskin boots, William Morris print trousers and a kaftan. He cheerily told me to look for a typical large redneck driving a pick-up.

From then on a list of recommended contacts would provide unlimited opportunities to drool over fabulous car collections, drive great cars, and eat out at the best restaurants. Happily, it’s an arrangement that continues to this day, and I wouldn’t dream of spending time in LA without contacting at least two car enthusiast friends for exactly the same sort of experience. The city’s reputation as nirvana for petrol-heads is entirely appropriate. But I digress.

There was also a delightful period in the mid-1970s, where we had a few shows in Scottsdale, Arizona. The local car company rented out dune buggies, which was a new experience for all of us. Inevitably, half a dozen of the band entourage headed to the desert to re-create the famous – and notorious – Baja 1000 race. After a series of (mis)adventures we had left a number of hors de combat vehicles behind, and made it home in a couple that were still running.

Unfortunately, we were completely unable to describe to the rental people where it was we had left the others. “By a large cactus” just didn’t seem adequate. I think they were duly recovered over the following months. The other memorable aspect of this particular city was that the Police Department’s traffic division had been equipped somewhat improbably with DeLoreans, and delighted in any excuse for even a modest chase to flex their under-used motoring muscle.

“San Francisco was even more exciting musically for Pink Floyd than LA”

San Francisco was even more exciting musically for Pink Floyd than LA. At Bill Graham’s Fillmore and Winterland venues, we were part of a line-up that included Janis Joplin, Richie Havens and Santana. Due to all too frequent chemical ingestion by some parties, it was prudent not to accept a ride, and far better to leave the psychedelically decorated Porsches in the garages. Then as now, it’s advisable to do any spirited grand touring well out of town, and the drive to the glorious Napa Valley wine country and coastal Monterey really is as uplifting as you’ll have heard or read. Reunited with Highway One, this truly is Ferrari territory, ideally driving a short wheelbase 1961 250 GT California Spider, roof down.

Due to shortages of this particular model, Ferrari has kindly done the right thing and produced the ultimate successor in the shape of the all-new California. With the cleverest drop top in existence, a new engine (turbocharged!), and a wonderfully commodious cabin, this really is a worthy substitute. And besides, there’s a lot more room to get those cases of local wine on board.

From issue 24, March 2014

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]]>On 1st August 1976, the German Grand Prix was held at the Nurburgring. In qualifying, Niki Lauda who had dominated the season so far in his Ferrari 312 T2, had to give best to James Hunt and the McLaren. Lauda’s race got off to a bad start, because a rain shower had led to him choosing rain tyres. But the decision cost the Austrian a lot of time and he lost places to those who had opted for slicks. He therefore stopped to change them and set off to make up ground, but then, partly down to his still cold tyres offering little grip on the damp track, he had that terrible accident at Bergwerk.

Lauda lost control of the car, hit the bank at the side of the track and ended up across the track, with his helmet missing, having been ripped off in the impact. The car caught fire as fuel leaked out and Niki was trapped in the burning cockpit. Other drivers bravely tried to help as they came across the incident: Harald Ertl, Guy Edwards and Brett Lunger all did what they could, but it was mainly thanks to Arturo Merzario, who pulled him out of the flaming cockpit, who saved him. However, Lauda was in a very serious condition, not so much because of the burns, but because of the poisonous fumes he had inhaled that might have proved lethal. It was only four days later on 5 August that his condition was no longer deemed life threatening and three days after that, he was moved from the Mannheim hospital where he was first taken, to one at Ludwigshafen, which had a specialist burns unit.

Those who believed his racing days were over had not taken into account the Austrian’s determination. Lauda was back on track in record time and only missed out on that year’s title by a single point. The following year he was crowned world champion, also winning at the new venue for the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim.

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]]>On 31st July the Zandvoort circuit hosted the second running of the eponymous Grand Prix. The race was run over two qualifying legs, which saw drivers go through to a 40 lap final. Scuderia Ferrari arrived in Holland with three 125s for Alberto Ascari, Luigi Villoresi and Peter Whitehead.

Villoresi easily won the first leg, while Ascari finished second in the second one, in which Whitehead went out. In the final, the two Ferraris duked it out at the front up until lap 35 when Ascari suffered a spectacular crash, when he lost a wheel. Fortunately, the driver got away unscathed, although he wasn’t able to continue.

The race was then dominated by Villoresi, who won with margins of 30.3 and 41.9 seconds over the Maseratis of the Swiss Emmanuel “Toulo” De Graffenried and Prince Bira respectively. Fourth was another Maserati, driven by Giuseppe Farina, who was actually second past the flag but was give a one minute penalty for jumping the start.

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]]>On 30th July 2006, the German Grand Prix was held at Hockenheim. Kimi Raikkonen ruled the roost in his McLaren in qualifying, while Ferraris were next up with Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa second and third respectively. In the race, the 248 F1 were very competitive and delivered a one-two finish.

Michael took the 89th victory of his career, beating Massa by less than a second. Third was Raikkonen, while championship leader, Fernando Alonso in the Renault, was only fifth, behind Jenson Button in his Honda.

Scuderia Ferrari’s 72nd one-two, put Schumacher and the team back in the hunt for both titles. The German was now just 11 points behind Alonso while Ferrari was 10 points down on Renault.

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]]>http://magazine.ferrari.com/blog/2014/07/it-happened-today-30-july-2/feed/0http://magazine.ferrari.com/blog/2014/07/it-happened-today-30-july-2/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/dv8VpSe69dc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/EuuNZCob5WQ/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/eo5LNSFChSs/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/LVd4HTTqkd4/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/up62k3uV8bw/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/KqLycDXWMw4/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/FojwWoX0w9Q/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/zsiMxbzuKiM/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/65ldYv-4Sh4/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/J1KfvBVGsPE/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/CakW7MkRcgw/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/icQV_idcP3M/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/E23o_zYQgGo/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/NM47GQkKfKs/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/nPQUaCwLuJ0/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/dL5THa3hgDk/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/QNKV1ET3jcc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/VC_62ssliS0/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/jvdUCTFAdG0/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/vvB5TPTU2Wk/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/cACaJ-sLHtA/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/ikoNrcJdq78/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/0h2ZyGoRRN0/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/-zAU2EwMSS0/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/R-78omxua3g/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/rY__cUOLbso/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/NBfOjJI2gnU/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/NgwLbmFXVBI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/r32E4DlnqQ8/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/m2cVmzrS3fw/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/GiJN_uTuVC4/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/nhFcJZygbvI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/aZUkMJntlgI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/YQ3ylnhobTI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/S7Nbkamh3wQ/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/r17rpuK75kc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/u35wgkWKV40/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/UHA93uuCeAQ/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/7Omgws9ehCM/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/oC1eu-xXlJ4/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/WMIm3wAtGwc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/A4EY450tzJM/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/IsmVpIG70gY/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/NF_9eEjt70s/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/4jksGBzKZsE/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/XqKSwkRuWms/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/Nhx-MsQvqaU/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/uOQnsWr64Iw/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/vGi6U1b2fn8/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/BeP65MgB-uw/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/aWCqlsJ27mY/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/JybgLkyYTKY/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/4YowKlzGiPM/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/YitxMqtVqzE/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/MiS1r8WPVPk/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/9yeBbGtf9oI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/IvD6XRr7yk4/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/MnjAzmF8zlE/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/7iCL0inZETA/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/AsFTp81m4YY/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/_MP8qewiTIo/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/OSpFE6VWdpA/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/QEpsjnhQ1Qc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/KxaobdSxWPU/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/3swsCsFpy2c/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/NQAYRLcOILI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/sE8wAXGiNY0/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/17ZQbPt5YTk/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/fv8garzu00k/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/-hOTjtLWpCs/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/5siqcz2g-bI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/RIrL3FXgS6s/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/Ju9sLpKcndY/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/1grhoK4tBVo/Free spiritshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FerrariMagazine/~3/ESiICkJQAZg/
http://magazine.ferrari.com/blog/2014/07/free-spirits/#commentsTue, 29 Jul 2014 10:08:13 +0000Antonio Ghinihttp://magazine.ferrari.com/?p=6691How can modern motorsport adapt itself to become more attractive to a younger internet generation, one with a different idea of what freedom represents and how it relates to their everyday movements across the planet?

]]>Is a passion for racing a matter of culture? After many years on the circuits, I think that it is. To better understand why, we should first think about what exactly it is that we mean by “culture”.
The word comes from Latin and means “to cultivate”. To cultivate means to sow, to grow
plants and collect their fruits. Culture is precisely that and, if we go to see a motor race as children and enjoy it, that will then be the seed that will grow to become a passion. The culture of the car
and motorsport has seen the former in the role of central protagonist for over 100 years, symbolizing the values of power, freedom and status. These values have remained more or less
unchanged over the years: roads, even before racing tracks, allowed us to feel intoxicated by
a power that, especially for men, became an extension of their sexual dreams. The freedom to go anywhere, any time, without the limitations of time and discomfort often associated with public transport, often too slow, uncomfortable or expensive. The notion of car as status symbol came
from its flaunting as proof of one’s success in the economic and social hierarchy.
Even if the world has changed, these values still remain part of the experience of owning a car.
With one difference, however: the experience changes radically from country to country. So, for
example, the Americans quickly became used to speed limits, but this didn’t stop them from loving
fast sports cars. They have learnt to appreciate their character, almost as though they were expert tamers of wild horses from the Wild West. On the other side of the world, in China and now also in India, the desire to own a car is comparable to what Europeans experienced in the aftermath of World War II, when the pleasure of having your own vehicle became a symbol of personal success. We could look at a thousand other cases, finding ever-different responses, but always justified ones. All responses that confirm how the fundamental values of the car have not changed. What has changed, however, is the socio-cultural context in which we find ourselves: the car is no longer a choice of absolute freedom. There are so many ways of moving quickly and easily. Today, we often find ourselves deciding whether to use a car or not, something that was never really possible in the past. Then there are the profound changes in our living habits: we are all connected by virtual networks and can organise face-time/Skype conferences instead of travelling or, if we are wise, we think about the world we live in respectfully, and decide to move around it more rationally. This state of things is inevitably reflected in the cultural formation of young people. Leaving aside Formula One and a few other major international races, motorsport has seen a drop in spectator numbers and appears incapable of winning them back. Instead of being surprised by this, we should realise that, if the world is changing, then the ways of racing can’t remain the same. In racing, our dream of an unobtainable car was linked with the daring deeds of heroic figures from the past. Now, however, the car is within everybody’s reach and such dreams are limited to a few rare, unobtainable models, such as Ferraris. This by itself is not enough to feed the great fire of passion. Motorsport has to know how to transform itself
into something that, with its daring and potential aspiration, can attract people by arousing passion with the so-called minor races. The Americans were the first to understand this,
proven by the success of NASCAR and IndyCar. Formula One also does this quite well, even if
it does retain the perverse habit of keeping the drivers too far removed from the public,
imprisoned in the absurd, inaccessible, gilded cage known as the paddock. However, the so-called minor formulas do not seem able to interpret the desire to be the carefree spirit that the internet generation aspires to when it turns off its tablets or smartphones. The sporting spirit should become a kind of a “carefree sporting spirit”. That would be a way of keeping the level
of passion high in the digital world.

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]]>On 29th July 2012, the AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 won the Pro-Am Cup in the legendary Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hours race in Belgium a round of the Blancpain Endurance Series.

At the wheel of the winning car was a multinational team made up of Dutchman Niek Hommerson, Belgium’s Louis Machieles and the Italians, Andrea Bertolini, a Ferrari test driver, for F1 cars too and Alessandro Pier Guidi.

The foursome dominated the class, beating the Haribo Racing Team Porsche of the Germans Uwe Alzen, Christian Menzel, Hans Guido Riegel and Mike Stursberg, by no less than five laps.

In third place came another Ferrari, the Sofrev-ASP car crewed by a the French crew of Eric Debard, Morgan Moullin-Traffort, former Formula 1 driver Olivier Panis, and goalie with the French World Cup and European Championship winning team, Fabien Barthez.

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]]>On 28th July 2003, a Formula Renault race was held at Misano Adriatico. It was won by a young Finn who, two years earlier had won the Italian winter karting series. The youngster went by the name of Toni Vilander.

That season, Toni finished third in the championship, driving for RP Motorsport, going on to win the Italian Formula 3 Championship the following year, impressing the Astromega team enough for them to want him to continue in single-seasters. Instead, he discovered GT cars, taking the Italian GT2 class title with Maserati.

That victory turned his career around, Toni deciding to concentrate on GT racing, competing with Ferrari in Europe with AF Corse and in America with Risi Competizione.

Today, Vilander is a cornerstone of the GT racing world, with two wins to his name in the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours at the wheel of the 458 Italia GT2 run by AF Corse. The first of these wins came in 2012, the second this year. Sharing the car with him have been the same two drivers, the Italians Giancarlo Fisichella and Gianmaria “Gimmi” Bruni.

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]]>On 27th July 2013, the Spa Francorchamps 24 Hours race got underway, as the penultimate round of the Blancpain Endurance series. Ferrari won two categories, the Pro-Am and the Gentleman Trophy.

In the Pro-Am category, the victory went to the AF Corse driven by the British Duncan Cameron and Alex Mortimer, the Irishman Matt Griffin and Finland’s Toni Vilander, who covered 557 laps of the demanding Belgian circuit.

Ferrari also won the Gentleman Trophy and actually took a clean sweep of the podium. The victory went to the Sofrev ASP 458 Italia GT3 driven by Frenchmen Jean-Luc Blanchemain, Jean-Luc Beaubelique, Patrice Goueslard and the Belgian Fred Bouvy. Second was the Sport Garage car driven by Frenchmen Romain Brandela, Thierry Prignaud, Belgium’s Stephane Lemeret and the Italian Leonardo Gorini. Third went to their team-mates, the Italian “Mino” Caccia, France’s Jerome Demay, Gilles Duqueine and Philippe Marie.

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]]>On 26th July, Spa Francorchamps hosted its 24 Hours race, counting towards the first World Sports Car Championship. Ferrari entered three crews, all of them running 375 MM Pinin Farina Berlinettas. Car 6 was in the hands of Luigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari, number 9 was for Umberto Maglioli and Piero Carini and the 8 car was for Giuseppe Farina and Mike Hawthorn.

It was this last car that set the fastest time in qualifying, thanks to a truly virtuoso performance from Hawthorn who did the lap, in those days over 14 kilometres in length, in 4’39”, at an average speed of over 180 km/h. In the race, cars 6 and 9 had to retire, while Farina and Hawthorn made the most of the retirements to take their 375 to victory.

Between them, the pair completed 260 laps at over 150 km/h average speed, beating the two Jaguars with which they shared the podium by 18 and 29 laps respectively.

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]]>On 25th July 2004, the German Grand Prix was held at Hockenheim. In qualifying, Michael Schumacher and the F2004 was in a class of his own, beating Juan Pablo Montoya in the Williams by three and a half tenths and Kimi Raikkonen in the McLaren by almost four. In the other Ferrari, Rubens Barrichello fared less well and was only seventh, at around a second down.

In the race, the German won as he pleased, only briefly losing the lead during the pit stops. Michael thus took his 81st win, the 178th for Ferrari, crossing the line ahead of Jenson Button in the BAR and Fernando Alonso in the Renault.

Schumacher thus extended his championship lead with 110 points to 74 for team-mate Barrichello and 61 for Button. In the Constructors’ table, Ferrari led Renault by 99 points.

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